on MISSIONS

From the very beginning of God’s interaction with His world He had a definite outward other-orientation to His plan. Without the sending aspect of His character God would be distant and aloof. Without the outward orientation of missions, the Church becomes ingrown and complacent.

Some of the following workshops are intended for missions awareness in local churches. Others are workshops most appropriate for people entering cross-cultural ministry.

96) GROWING A HEALTHY MISSIONS COMMITTEE

Does your church have a written missions policy and strategic plan? Is it relevant to your church for the twenty first century? Discover how to form a missions committee and evaluate where your church is in terms of missions awareness. Define your purpose and craft three-to-five-year strategy. Learn how to develop a weekly missions moment for your church. This workshop is offered gratis for our supporting churches as long as extensive travel is not involved.
 

97) ASSUMPTIONS THAT AFFECT OUR LIVES

Have you ever been startled to realize that all your life you’ve assumed something that actually was entirely false? This workshop offers participants a unique opportunity to step back and look at our foundational assumptions—beliefs that stem from the Greeks over 2,000 years ago. Discover how the truth of the gospel of Christ not only breaks the spiritual bonds of sin and death but can free whole communities from deception and poverty.

98) PREPARING FOR INTERCULTURAL MINISTRY

Short-term mission trips are a great way to impact the Kingdom. Yet they can lack effectiveness because of mistakes or naiveté on part of participants. What would it be like to serve with your eyes wide open to how you are viewed by the people you are serving among? Learn how to make short-term missions just another opportunity to live out what we’re living 24/7 wherever we are.
 

99) PLANTING A CHURCH IN FIVE STAGES

Too many attempts to plant a church in another culture fail because the missionary was only trained in theology with a vacuum of sociology and anthropology. This sets him up to do church-plopping instead of church-planting. This workshop offers a systematic approach to church-planting that flows from preparing to pre-evangelism to presenting the gospel to post-evangelism to phase-out, with a focus on beginning with an exit strategy. This model is working around the world.

100) THE POWER OF STORY

Many of us in Anglo culture came to know Scripture through the medium of outline or “systematic theology.” Yet most of our world (including most millennials) learn best through story. The Bible is one story containing 550 shorter stories involving 3,000 characters. Stories change worldview. “Tell me your story” is one of the most powerful questions a missionary will ever ask. Learn principles of story-telling to help others encounter God through His story, a rival story to our story.

101) DEVELOPING A ONE-POINT SERMON

How many sermons have we heard that have seemed nothing more than a collection of points with no adequate sense of the whole? Too many unrelated ideas to remember anything one hour later. If a sermon is going to change lives it needs to be a bullet, not buckshot. Discover how to create a sermon that is the explanation, interpretation and application of a single primary idea supported by other ideas, all drawn from one passage or several passages of Scripture.
 

102) FACILITATING IN THE FACILITATOR ERA

There have been three eras of world missions. Carey focused on the coastlands, Taylor focused on the inland, and McGavran  focused on unreached peoples. With all the changes that have come with the new century, we missionaries have entered a new era: the Facilitator Era. Facilitative leadership flexes with the need, sometimes leading from the front, sometimes from beside, sometimes from behind. Discover and apply principles of facilitative leadership.
 

103) CROSS-CULTURAL PARTNERSHIPS

Between 1998 and 2005 there was a 6,900% increase in US churches and mission agencies claiming that partnering was a primary method of engaging in global missions. Partners from different cultures and backgrounds begin serving together in the hopes of accomplishing great things for God. If all parties are not growing in cultural intelligence, relationships can become unglued and short-lived. Good intentions are simply not enough to have good outcomes in cross-cultural partnering.

104) RAISING FUNDS

How’s your support level? Do you have a need to raise funds for a special project? If you think you can raise more support or funds like you did fifteen or twenty years ago, think again. Times have changed. You may be surprised that the greatest hindrances to raising support or funds for special projects include myths we hold on which translate into mistakes often made. This workshop gets into the nitty-gritty of crafting a custom-designed fundraising strategy that works.